The present invention relates to a processing rate calculation apparatus, a processing rate calculation method, and a computer readable recording medium having thereon a processing rate calculation program. To be more specific, the present invention relates to a processing rate calculation apparatus, a processing rate calculation method, and a computer readable recording medium having thereon a processing rate calculation program when a product is processed by using a processing apparatus which must determine processing requirements (such as film accumulation requirements or film etching requirements) by estimating them from a processing rate (such as a film accumulation rate or a film etching rate) and which must determine processing requirements just before the processing because processing properties are unstable (for example, the processing rate differs from day to day or the number of particles differs from apparatus to apparatus).
A conventional processing requirement determination apparatus will be described as follows with reference to FIG. 8.
FIG. 8 shows the entire structure of the conventional processing requirement determination apparatus, which comprises a processing rate calculation means 1 for calculating a processing rate, and a processing requirement determination means 2 for determining processing requirements. The processing rate calculation means 1 performs provisional processing by using a product monitor before starting the processing of a product in a specific process, and then calculates a processing rate based on the results of the provisional processing. The processing requirement determination means 2 determines processing requirements based on the processing rate calculated by the processing rate calculation means 1.
As mentioned above, the conventional processing requirement determination apparatus performs provisional processing by using a product monitor before starting the processing of a product, then calculates a processing rate based on the results of the provisional processing, and determines processing requirements based on the calculated processing rate. This procedure causes a problem that it takes a lot of time to determine the processing requirements, which results from the large amount of time required for calculating a processing rate.